Following a visit to India late last year from global Head of Deloitte Digital, Andy Main, the global professional services firm has formally launched its digital practice in India. The segment operates across 48 countries internationally, operating with nearly 10,000 employees.

Digital advancement across the globe has forced the business world into comprehensive transformation, and thereby presented a sizeable opportunity to the international consulting industry. Coping with the demand for digital consulting has driven many consulting firms to open specialised digital arms in recent years.

Big four professional services firm Deloitte launched such a division in 2012, by the name of Deloitte Digital. The digital wing essentially supervises the digital transformation of businesses, simultaneously assisting with other aspects such as mobile development, cloud-based operations, and recently even creative and advertising capabilities.

Since its establishment, the firm has expanded rapidly across the globe, having recently acquired a string of firms in Europe, the US, and Australia. In terms of clientele, the division has serviced firms across a number of industries, including retail, finance, health, media, abd even gamin. Major clients have been LG Electronics, Pepsico, Manulife, Papa Murphy’s, Pizza Hut and Estee Lauder.

Now in India

Now, Deloitte Digital has formally launched in India as of January 12th, further expanding its strong international presence. Late last year, the Head of Deloitte Digital globally, Andy Main, visited India and announced intentions of launching a local division. In his words, “Through the India division we are looking to incubate innovation, drive digital mind share and grow digital offerings as well as the market”.

A number of reasons were cited by Main to justify India as a next step, including the country’s expanding digital maturity, a wave of digital innovation and startups, as well as a plethora of young brands looking to construct a reputation. Projected expansion of the digital advertisement arena in India will create space for the division’s new creative agenda.

The focus of the division in India will be on activating a digital mindset, facilitating digital transformation, enhancing the digital experience, and even transforming core systems to deliver digital platforms. The firm is hoping to compete with existing players in the market such as GroupM, IPG Media Brands, and Dentsu.

Deloitte Digital in India will be headed by Ajit Kumar, who has been Partner and Managing Director at the firm so far. Having graduated from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Bangalore, Kumar spent three years as a Senior Software Engineer at global tech firm IBM, before joining Deloitte as Chief Information Officer over a decade ago.

Commenting on the new division, Kumar said; “India is ripe for a digital revolution, but the clients' mindset needs to change, Deloitte Digital, as a creative digital consultancy, will help companies embrace that change so that digital can be an enabler for them to stay or get competitive in the market. Our talent pool includes a diverse mix of creatives and designers from topnotch design schools, advertising and marketing agencies and startups, many of whom are ethnographers and user research experts. We also have design savvy engineers from technology, startups and consulting domain and tier-I engineering schools and business strategists with experience in industry and from premium business schools. In addition, we also have digital platform experts who specialise in various exponential technologies.”